Le diamant noir

Albert Dieudonné is the secretary in a rich man's house. When a rare black diamond goes missing and is discovered in a pile of papers in his room, he is dismissed in disgrace. A month later, it is discovered that a magpie has been flying into the house and moving shiny baubles around and he is cleared. However, he has disappeared on a hunting expedition to the Sudan.

Albert Machin's short feature is pure melodrama and a pretty slow-moving one at that, full of leisurely shots meant to show off handsome sets or landscapes, rather than the human drama. Dieudonné overacts and over-reacts to everything in a passive and clumsy manner, although the latter can be forgiven when he is acting with the director's prized pet leopard, Mimir. It's not a patch on Machin's didactic feature, MAUDITE SOIT LA GUERRE, but the scenes set in the African jungle were just the director's meat.